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Kan. lawmakers consider new abortion restrictions

Abortion rights supporters in Kansas braced Wednesday for the likelihood of new restrictions as a state House committee took up comprehensive anti-abortion legislation.

The Federal and State Affairs Committee had a hearing on a bill that attempts to prevent the state from subsidizing abortions even indirectly through tax breaks. For example, a woman who had an abortion couldn’t include the costs if she deducts medical expenses from her income for tax purposes, and an abortion provider could not claim the same exemption from the state sales tax on what it purchases that other health care providers receive.

The bill strengthens provisions in Kansas law designed to prevent doctors-in-training at the state’s medical school from performing abortions with state sources or on the state’s time. The measure revises a long-standing “informed consent” law requiring doctors to give women certain information before terminating their pregnancies, spelling out what must be provided in greater detail. And no organization providing abortion services could be involved in public schools’ sex education courses.

The legislation also contains policy statements that each human life begins “at fertilization” and that “unborn children have interests in life, health and well-being that should be protected.”

“State law should be on the side of protecting and preserving human life,” said Michael Schuttloffel, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference. “The state should not be giving any support in any way to those who destroy innocent human life for money.”

The Legislature has solid anti-abortion majorities and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who took office in January 2011, is a strong abortion opponent.

The House committee’s hearing came the same day the Senate approved, 37-2, a bill prohibiting a doctor from terminating a woman’s pregnancy because she or her family don’t want a baby of a certain gender. A doctor could face both criminal penalties and a lawsuit from a woman or a family member after doing such a procedure.

The Senate’s vote sent the measure to the House, and the bill was one of several anti-abortion measures senators have considered.

But none of their measures are as sweeping as the legislation before the House committee, and abortion rights supporters are focusing the most energy on it.

“This seems to be the centerpiece of the anti-abortion movement’s legislative strategy this year,” said Elise Higgins, a lobbyist for the Kansas chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Higgins and other abortion rights supporters object to the policy statements about fetal rights and life beginning at fertilization. They argued it would trigger a complete ban on abortion should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn its historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, declaring a constitutional right to abortion in some circumstances and preventing states from banning the practice altogether.

Several dozen abortion rights supporters came Wednesday to the Statehouse for the House committee’s hearing, wearing pink to show their opposition to the bill.

“I am fully entitled to my reproductive rights,” said Cassandra Myskiw, a Kansas State University women’s studies graduate who hopes to pursue a graduate degree in social work at the University of Kansas. “I need to let my voice be heard.”

But Kansans for Life has eschewed proposals such as banning most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected early in pregnancy. They fear such measures could lead to a federal court challenge that could reinforce the Roe v. Wade decision or even limit the ability of states to impose new restrictions.

Rep. Lance Kinzer, an attorney and leading anti-abortion legislator, said the language cited by critics of the bill merely states broad principles. He said even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, existing abortion laws would remain on the books until legislators changed them.

“If we were going to do trigger legislation, this is not what it would look like,” said Kinzer, a conservative Olathe Republican.